The invention relates to recharging battery-operated equipment used by remote rescue teams, and more specifically, harvesting power from low-voltage overhead power transmission lines to recharge such battery-operated equipment.
Energy capacity of batteries means a great deal to military ground forces and other remote rescue teams. This is especially true when the conflict being supported largely involves special operational forces on the ground that serve as a link between air and ground forces. These Special Forces designate targets for air strikes. They do so using methods such as laser designators, which require a tremendous amount of battery power. They also carry other battery-powered items in their battlefield air operations kits, such as laser range finders, GPS equipment, radio equipment to talk to aircraft, laptops and night vision equipment. Malfunctions of some of this equipment cost lives in the twenty-first century conflicts.
One of the major limiting factors for all remote rescue teams is battery energy capacity. Missions have to be planned around these very limited battery lifetimes and military forces and rescue teams then have to be re-supplied with fresh sets of batteries. Another major focus in every discussion on battery technology is how to make batteries weigh less. Weight is everything to a soldier or a remote rescuer. In every survey of military ground soldiers, one of the frequent complaints is that they have too much to carry. Today's soldier carries between 80 and 100 pounds of equipment on their back when they go out into the field. They often have to dump weight to successfully see a mission through. With regard to battery weight, the immediate goal is to reduce battery weight, currently averaging 30 pounds, by 50 percent.
As is disclosed and claimed in the present invention, one method to reduce battery weight is to use smaller energy-capacity rechargeable batteries, which weigh dramatically less, and recharge them more often using overhead electric power transmission lines. Another option is to bypass the batteries entirely using overhead electric transmission lines to supply power directly to various pieces of equipment.
Most countries use power line cables called “duplex” or “triplex” to run the stepped-down, low voltage (LV) power, from a transformer to residential homes, farms, commercial businesses and shipyards, etc. An example triplex cable is shown in FIG. 1. It consists of three cables twisted together; two of these cables are insulted 100 since they are hot (i.e., 110V-240V each). The third cable is the neutral line 101 that is usually bare since it is made of rust-resistant metal such as aluminum or copper. The neutral line has no insulation which means less weight and it also acts as support for the other two “hot” lines.
Most foreign countries use duplex power cables, an example of which is shown in FIG. 2. Duplex power cables consist of only two cables twisted together. One of the cables is insulated and hot 200 (i.e., 110V-240V) and the second cable is the neutral line 201 that is usually bare since it is made of rust-resistant metal such as aluminum or copper and functions in the same manner as the neutral line from a triplex cable. The United States uses mostly triplex cables but also uses duplex cables for stop lights and street lights. FIG. 3 depicts a standard electric utility pole with an attached step-down transformer 302 that converts the high voltage (HV) lines 301 to low voltage lines 300. In this case, triplex cable 300 is used to run the low voltage power to the user's facility.
The present invention addresses the problems of weight for the military soldier and at the same time provides power for hand held equipment. The present invention, titled the Remote Apparatus Power System (RAPS) could potentially allow forward operational military forces to survive almost indefinitely out in the field since battery energy limitations and weight are no longer problems.